Wanted: Ugly People With Transportation To Pittsburgh

February 27, 2008

I bet that when Pittsburgh started to get its fledgeling film industry off the ground,
everyone assumed it meant the city would soon be teeming with gorgeous hunks
and starlets. Not exactly, if the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review is to be believed:

A movie about to be filmed in Pittsburgh is casting Gothic characters
-- including an albino-like girl and deformed people -- to depict West
Virginia mountain people...That's the gist of an open casting call for paid extras for "Shelter,"
a horror film starring Julianne Moore that will begin shooting in
Pittsburgh in March..... "Extraordinarily tall or short. Unusual body shapes, even physical
abnormalities as long as there is normal mobility. Unusual facial
features, especially eyes."

Don't think you quite fit the bill for Shelter? There's still hope:

Casting agent Nancy Mosser is looking for skinny, grungy actors and
extras. The film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize-winning
novel [The Road] that will star Viggo Mortenson and Charlize Theron will begin
shooting in the Pittsburgh area in March.... Producers are looking for people with minimal muscle tone, long stringy
hair and a starved, ravaged appearance. They need men capable of
growing a full beard. Also needed: a thin man of any ethnicity who is missing one or both
legs. No previous acting experience is needed for this role.

Ironically enough, I will actually be in Pittsburgh for a few days in early March. Talk about kismet.